Abolition

From the Editor

Abolition, temperance, women's rights, utopian experiments, religious revivalism, prison, asylum, and even diet reform: Readers of this list know right away that they have been transported to the 1830s and '40s, America's first great "age of reform." The impulse to improve society, perhaps to perfect it, drew upon a variety of sources, from religion to the socialist theories of men like Fourier and Noyes. Whatever the wellspring of their activities, reformers brought remarkable energy and commitment to their projects. Some of their...More »